Nathan Senner

I'm here to impose Pax Romana for natural tidal debris on beaches across the Mediterranean.
Reason: Coastal life needs debris to thrive. More info: doi.org/10.1016/j.tr... The paper is in English, not Latin, but it is equally understandable to Romans, scientists, managers, and citizens.

🦉🌎🧪 New #MigratoryShorebirdProject study confirms #shorebirds are in trouble across the entire Western Hemisphere. These findings fill a critical data gap, strengthen support for current programs, and help guide future conservation action. Learn more: shorturl.at/6slxg

Left panel: A small black, grey, white and yellow songbird wearing a tracking backpack. Right panel: A map of North America showing a migration track beginning in Alaska, crossing east across the boreal forest of Canada, and then turning south to the coast of Texas before retracing the path north.

Out now in Movement Ecology: We used multi-sensor geolocators to track myrtle warblers breeding in Alaska and found that they migrated much farther than expected to the Gulf Coast—rather than to the closer Pacific Coast non-breeding area 🪶🧵 link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Using GPS telemetry, male black-tailed godwits used mudflats and adjacent saltworks, females a wider array of habitats. Females showed high foraging activity on small arthropod prey in rice fields & saltworks, compared to males eating larger polychaetes on mudflats.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

The tracks from this bird have, in turn, been instrumental in helping us identify where Whimbrel spend time in Maranhão. We're down here now w/SAVE Brasil and Manomet carrying out surveys and scoping out areas for future work. It's an amazing place with huge numbers of shorebirds. Keeping going EA2!

One of the coolest parts of tracking birds is getting to see those individuals in the wild again. Yesterday, near São Luis, Brazil, we saw a Whimbrel tagged in TX by Manomet and U. of OK in 2022! Since then it's been to the MacKenzie Delta & Southampton Island + Cape Cod, MA! Photos: Alan Kneidel

Global review of shorebird tracking data to identify research gaps and conservation priorities Tracking has enabled rapid advances in knowledge of the movement behavior and habitat use of shorebirds and is thus making a growing contribution to their conservation. However, realizing the full po...

Tracking has revolutionized the study of migratory birds - shorebirds included! 🐦
In this paper, we explore the global and historical patterns of tracking effort on these birds, and suggests some species that would benefit from future tracking efforts
conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

A new article in Ecology and Evolution on apparent survival rates for two populations of Golden Eagles in Scotland. Shed feathers were collected at nest sites for genotyping and sexing. Mark-recapture models used to estimate demographic rates.🪶https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.72912

Globally, no single day in 2025 was cooler than its 1991-2020 average.
climate.copernicus.eu/global-clima...

Raso Lark reintroduction proves a triumph After a small number of Raso Larks were translocated to Santa Luzia in 2018, the population has grown to as many as 1,000 individuals.

Translocation of Raso Larks to the island of Santa Luzia in 2018 after eradication of invasive cats has been spectacularly successful, with nearly 1000 individuals now. Great work by @birdlifeglobal.bsky.social partner Biosfera, and long-championed by Mike Brooke www.birdguides.com/news/raso-la...

E5: Okay, but why fly from the Arctic to Antarctica and back every year? — Okay, But... Birds

I had a blast talking with @drscottataylor.bsky.social on the most recent episode of Okay, but...birds. Tune in for my hot take on why Hudsonian Godwits are far superior to Arctic Terns as migratory birds! (I welcome any & all angry comments from tern supporters 😉)

okaybutbirds.com/episodes/e5

A map of the US with each 2025 billion-plus dollar weather and climate disaster geo-located on it. Source: Climate Central

After the US admin cancelled the $B Climate + Weather Disaster dataset, @climatecentral.org hired the scientists who ran it and set it back up.

Now the 2025 numbers are in: it's 3rd highest year on record and highest year w/o land-falling hurricanes.

More: www.climatecentral.org/climate-serv...

Postdoctoral Researcher All Job Postings will close at 12:01a.m. CST (1:01a.m. EST) on the specified Closing Date (if designated). If you close the browser or exit your application prior to submitting, the application progre...

LSU Museum of Natural Sciences is hiring a postdoc! Come join our very active and supportive museum community. Applicants can work with any of the major divisions: 🐀🦜🦎🐸🐠

Review begins February 15th, please share!

lsu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/LSU/job/0119...

We're hiring! The Dept. of Environmental Conservation @umassamherst.bsky.social is looking for an Extension Professor in Biodiversity Conservation. Reviews start Feb 1. I am on the SC and absolutely love working in the ECo Dept. Come join us! DM me with questions. careers.umass.edu/amherst/en-u...

Biologist kidnapped in Mexico In the mountains of central Veracruz, scientific work is rarely abstract. It means walking narrow paths through cloud forest, speaking patiently with communities, and learning to read landscapes that…

Biologist kidnapped in Mexico news.mongabay.com/short-articl... 🧪🌎

A bit of serendipity this morning - didn’t feel safe going out in the car so went to the canal instead and saw this. My comedy moment for the year 🦢🤪

[Vertical video so needs a click]

#sillyswan #iphone15pro

On the other Dutch radar it is very clear birds are fleeing away from fireworks towards quiet places like the Wadden Sea and IJsselmeer (a huge inland lake). See the patterns of reflectivity moving towards the East/ESE.

More, including GIFs of Belgian radars, here: horizon.science.uva.nl/fireworks/

High adult mortality of African Penguins Spheniscus demersus in South Africa after 2004 was likely caused by starvation From 2004–2011, following the collapse of sardine Sardinops sagax, a main food for African Penguins Spheniscus demersus, to < 25% of its maximum recorded abundance, survival of penguins breeding at...

From 2004–2011, ~62,000 African Penguin died near Cape Town because of sardine collapse caused by climate change and overfishing. That’s ~95% of the breeding penguins! In 2024, African Penguins were uplisted to Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.

Need funding to help with a small #wader #shorebird project? This might be the answer. Deadline for applications now 31st December 2025

💰 IWSG Small Grant applications
www.waderstudygroup.org/projects/sma...

We're hiring! The Dept. of Environmental Conservation @umassamherst.bsky.social is looking for an Extension Professor in Biodiversity Conservation. Reviews start Feb 1. I am on the SC and absolutely love working in the ECo Dept. Come join us! DM me with questions. careers.umass.edu/amherst/en-u...

Okay, but why did my life list just shrink? Podcast Episode · Okay, But... Birds · S1 E3 · 27m

Just in time for the holidays, I had a fun chat with @drscottataylor.bsky.social about splits and lumps… and some of the other controversies roiling avian taxonomy 🤓

🦉🧪
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/o...

Project MACAW aims to reduce bird-building collisions on UGA’s campus - Odum School of Ecology Richard Hall leads a team of students identifying hotspots for lethal bird collisions.

Nice write-up of our efforts to document and prevent bird collisions with windows on the UGA campus. ecology.uga.edu/project-maca...

Methods and locations of bird observations in Concord, Massachusetts. (a) The journal of William Brewster, 1871–1919, featuring first bird arrival dates for Concord from 1886–1919 used in this study; images courtesy of the Biodiversity heritage library (www.biodiversitylibrary.org.). (b) a group of eBird observers at Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in 2023. (c) Locations and counts of eBird observations across Concord from 2013–2024 (n = 58,977). Observation counts reflect single bird observations of the eighteen target species, during the spring migration season (see Methods section).

Latest articles from the WJO - Integrating historical records and citizen science data to understand bird responses to climate change in Concord, Massachusetts: Thoreau to eBird. #ornithology doi.org/10.1080/1559...

PhD project entitled "Are we underestimating the effects of climate change on animal populations?" Supervised by Dr Natalie Pilakouta and Dr David Shuker Deadline: 6 January 2026

📣 PhD opportunity in my lab 📣

We're looking for a motivated student interested in the effects of thermal stress on animal survival and reproduction: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Project is open-ended to allow student to define its direction depending on their interests

Please share widely!

NCAR is quite literally our global mothership.

Everyone who works in climate and weather has passed through its doors and benefited from its incredible resources.

Dismantling NCAR is like taking a sledgehammer to the keystone holding up our scientific understanding of the planet.

Unbelievable.

Topological discordance between the concatenated ultra-conserved element species tree of parulid warblers and a 1.8-kb region of the BCO2 gene. Left: Full co-phylogeny, with the species tree on the left and gene tree on the right. Right: A magnolia warbler (Setophaga magnolia) perched on a rose branch. Image credit Davey Walters.

Introgression between species can shape #evolution. Study of the colorful American #warblers (Parulidae) by @kevinfpbennett.bsky.social @davetoews.bsky.social &co reveals intergeneric & interspecific introgression of genes related to carotenoid #plumage color @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/48MyfU2

Researcher 'shocked' as Winnipeg considers scrapping recent bird-friendly window bylaw The City of Winnipeg is considering 'deleting' its bird-friendly window requirements for a mix of new builds along major corridors and near malls based on industry feedback that suggested the rule was...

WTAF:

@cityofwinnipeg.bsky.social considering removing bylaw for bird-friendly windows.

Bylaw only applies to new builds along major corridors & near malls!

But industry doesn’t like it. So nature takes the hit, literally.

Winnipeggers, you gotta write to council.

www.cbc.ca/player/play/...

Two seals resting together.

Two seals touching their noses together.

🚨 Supersuckling Alert! 🚨 Galápagos sea lion moms are rewriting the rules of weaning! 🦭📢 Childs et al. reveal that mothers nurse their adult (5+ years!) offspring—even when those offspring are already reproducing! 🤯

Read now ahead of print!
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

The fight to beat neglected tropical diseases was going well. 2025 could change that The campaign to prevent and treat these diseases has seen great success thanks to a USAID program. Now that program is gone.

A small, but effective USAID program has played a leading role in driving down the burden of neglected tropical diseases around the world.

The Trump administration cut the program, and countries are scrambling to prevent these debilitating diseases from roaring back.
www.npr.org/sections/goa...

A bright red, tubular flower of Mimulus cardinalis, viewed in profile; photo by Curtis Clark via Wikimedia Commons

A resurrection study of scarlet monkeyflower populations across the species' range finds relatively little adaptive response to a seven-year drought event, showing that evolutionary rescue is not as predictable as we might hope 🌿

buff.ly/L8o4hhr